Monday, October 3, 2011

Sam Salz and Erich Maria Remarque.

The photo above is of one of my father's best friends: writer Erich Maria Remarque ("All Quiet On the Western Front", "Three Comrades"). Around 1942 when Remarque was in New York, he would visit my father (Sam Salz) many times at my father's apartment at the Ambassador Hotel where they would have long discussions on art. The writer was also a collector of Impressionist paintings and would buy several works from him (Cezanne, Degas and others). Along with Marlene Dietrich, they would all play cards at the Ambassador while World War Two raged on and Hitler marched through one country after another. The film director Billy Wilder("Some Like It Hot") was also an expatriot who would stop by and buy art as well. Later my father would visit Remarque and his wife the actress Paulette Goddard when he was near his home in the town of Porto Ronco, Switzerland. As a result of their friendship, my brother Andre was given the middle name of "Eric". Here is a link to the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Center in Osnabruck, Germany: http://www.remarque.uos.de/internet.htm